After a two-week extension into January to
get final equipment cleaned up, Educalc finally shut down in
Laguna Niguel, California. Jim Carter runs another small business
called Interfab in a rental unit in the same row as Educalc, and
is currently hanging onto some renaming stock there. There is a
chance that Sparcom/DaVinci's Megha Shayam will be taking over
the Educalc name and selling HP equipment from his Corvallis
site, but that still is not certain. If he does, Megha will be
given first crack at the remaining Educalc stock. If Megha
doesn't want it (since it allegedly is mostly old
HP41/71/75/HP-IL stuff), the gear may be available for pennies on
the dollar to whomever wants to pay to have it hauled away. Late
in December, Wlodek Mier-Jedrzejowicz spearheaded a group
attempting to "rescue" this equipment from the
dumpster, but found out that it was premature to make the effort.
If Megha passes on the stuff, we can be sure that significant
efforts will be made to insure it doesn't simply get thrown away.
Meanwhile, Richard Nelson is shopping himself around and has
apparently put his condo up for sale in order to be able to meet
his other expenses during his job search.

The 1998 Winter Consumer
Electronics Show

The Winter CES in Las Vegas (held 1/8
through 1/12) was interesting as ever; as this show never manages
to disappoint the attendees. A good crowd was on hand to see over
fifteen hundred exhibits spread predominantly over two huge sites
(the L.V. Convention Center and the two-level Sands Convention
Center a mile down the road). Despite the fact that
Hewlett-Packard chose to sit this one out, there were plenty of
handheld-related products and introductions to keep one busy.

Microsoft Palm PCs

The primary news from the handheld front
was the introduction of the new Windows CE version 2.0 handheld
platform, originally codenamed "Gryphon" by Microsoft.
This platform, which is very close in size to the PalmPilot, was
formally released by seven manufacturers: Casio, Philips,
Samsung, Everex, LG Electronics, Uniden and Palmax. There are a
handful of differences between the models, but several features
(besides WinCE) are common to all:

2 or 4 meg of RAM

240 by 320 touch-sensitive LCD
with 2-bit or 4-bit gray scale

LCD back light

Attached stylus

Docking cradle with AC power input
for PC connectivity/synchronizing

Two alkaline batteries for main
power

Speaker and voice-input microphone

Serial port

Two-way IrDA infrared port

Compact-Flash memory slot for
expansion up to 32 meg (currently)

Handwriting recognition software

Ability to handle digital ink

Beyond this are the items which the various
manufacturers have used to differentiate themselves, such as AA
cells in some (Samsung) versus AAA in others, larger speaker
(Samsung) versus smaller speaker, vibrating alarms (Everex) in
addition to audible ones, build-in software modem (Philips) and
16 shades of gray (Philips) versus four in others. These units do
not have MS Pocket Excel, but seem to have just about everything
else that their larger clamshell brethren have. Cost will range
from $299. To $499. HP has not chosen to initially support this
platform, but that doesn't mean that they won't do it in the
future. To me, the fact that it is shirt-pocketable and
vertical-format makes it very tempting. Check out the additional
Palm PC materials in this handout for more information.

Other Handhelds

Both Casio and Sharp continue to supply
models in their respective clamshell-configuration proprietary
organizer lines, despite the fact that they both support Windows
CE in either one (Sharp Mobilon clamshell) or both (Casio
Cassiopeia) platforms. Time will tell as to whether this is
continued. Also, TI showed a new line of vertical-format
touch-screen organizers dubbed Avigo. These are not compatible
with MS products, but they've chosen to go it alone and see what
happens. Sharp has also got a similar product which continues to
be sold.

On the calculator front, Texas Instruments'
TI-92 Plus Module was not at the show, but literature describing
it was there. This $80.-module will hold 2-meg of flash memory
plus 128K of RAM. It plugs in place of the resident ROM and
increased RAM space to 256K, with 188K available to the user. In
addition, 384K of the flash memory is available to the user for
archiving favorite programs and data. This memory may also be
shuttled back and forth between the calculator and the PC via the
GraphLink connectivity product. The remaining 1.7meg of flash is
operating system, including various math enhancements (which were
mentioned last month). This flash memory will be
user-upgradeable, and TI intends from time to time to make ROM
upgrades available as a free download from their Internet web
site. Perhaps the HP folks in Melbourne, Australia should sit up
and take note of this clever capability when they design their
new calculator platforms. The Plus Module is expected to be
available in the Summer.

Sharp also showed their new EL-9600
touchscreen graphing calculator, which takes the place of the
EL-9300 as the top of the line. It appears to be good competition
for the TI-86 and Casio's FX-series graphic machines. Along with
the usual gamut of math and plotting functions, the user may now
choose selections from menus by tapping on the LCD with a stylus.
The unit also can be mated with a PC-link device and also a
rather large overhead-display LCD module for classroom
applications.

Video News

The big story on the video front is the
imminent introduction of high-definition digital television to
the U.S. market. On November 1st, stations in the top ten markets
will begin rolling out HDTV terrestrial broadcasts which will be
able to be received by the new receivers going on the market this
fall. Our introductory station to HDTV will be channel 10 (NBC),
according to recent reports. Prototypes of the new digital
receivers were all over the show floor in three forms:
direct-view CRT, direct-view flat plasma panels and LCD
projection models. All have an aspect ratio of 16:9 (as opposed
to the current NTSC 4:3) and will be capable of receiving
broadcasts in all eighteen (yes, eighteen!) different digital TV
formats which have been mandated by the Advanced Television
Systems Committee (ATSC). The top two formats are 1920 by 1080
interlaced (meaning every odd frame contains the odd-numbered
lines and every even frame contains the even-numbered lines) and
1280 by 720 progressive (non-interlaced, with all data shown in
all frames). The projection models will start around 5 to 6
thousand dollars, the CRT models will probably cost a bit less
and the plasma flat panels will probably cost a bit more.
Although the flat panels were allegedly demonstrating HDTV
programs, none shown had the full HDTV resolution. The one with
the best specs was Pioneer's 50-inch model which sported 1280 by
768 pixels. (The plasma panels seem far superior to LCDs in that
they show full brightness from a much wider viewing angle -
almost a full 180 degrees.) The projection models shown looked
significantly better than their NTSC counterparts, but still
exhibited the classic fuzziness which is apparent from close
viewing. The full brightness of projection models also still
requires viewing in a darkened room, which is not always
possible. The only company showing direct-view HDTV CRT models
was Sony, with their newly-introduced "FD (flat-display)
Trinitron" models. These are plateglass flat (finally!) and
exhibit zero image distortion out to the corners, like a flat
panel, but are as physically deep as traditional CRT tubes. (On
the other hand, the plasma panels were no thicker than four
inches.) The videotape samples shown on the Sony monitors were
mindboggling. Once you've seen these things, it's hard to look
back.

As expected, DVD players were everywhere at
the CES, with the format finally taking off for movie viewing.
Fewer DVD-ROM drives were shown, but they're out there. A couple
of companies showed DVD-R (write-once recordable) and DVD-RAM
(read/write/eraseable) drives, which are several months off yet.
Also, Pioneer showed off the first DVD-based car navigation
system which incorporates GPS positioning, LCD map display and
DVD map data reader. Sanyo even showed a 60-disk changer which
could handle both CD and DVD disks. Also Panasonic introduced its
LD-10 portable DVD player with 5.8-inch wide-screen color LCD and
2-hour battery.

The 18-inch direct-broadcast satellite
receivers have become ubiquitous, and several accessories are
gathering attention now. JVC sells a "D-VHS" VCR which
records the digital bitstream from the small dish and crams 7
hours of digital-quality video and audio on a standard-sized VHS
tape. (Of course, in order to avoid the usual contraversy, they
have left off the digital outputs from this recorder, so users
are prevented from making digital [i.e. perfect] copies of tapes
off the air.) They also showed a combo DSS video receiver and
D-VHS recorder in one box. Another company showed an active
phased-array flat antenna for receiving satellite broadcasts.
This was touted for use on vans or RVs, but could be used
anywhere. This antenna is about the size of a cafeteria tray.

The recently-introduced digital video
cassette format is still expanding into the consumer arena, with
Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Sharp and now Canon showing models. Sony
upgraded their palm-sized DCR-PC7 with the DCR-PC10 which
increases the zoom capability and improves the on-board LCD
viewer. Canon showed their new "Optura" camcorder which
looks and feels like a 35mm SLR still camera and doubles as a
digital still camera, recording both still and moving images onto
the mini-DV tape. Sharp introduced a new digital unit in their
line whose 4-inch side-mounted LCD includes a touchscreen for
adjusting picture parameters. While these units are gaining in
popularity slowly, the prices are falling even slower, with the
list price on the cheapest models still being well over two
thousand dollars. In addition, the only digital-tape VCR is from
Sony and costs $4199. One wonders the fate of this format once
the HDTV format becomes popular. (Nobody at the show seemed to
address the issue of off-the-air taping or camcorder/VCR products
for HDTV.)

Digital Still Cameras

The digital still cameras continue to gain
popularity, with just about every electronics company joining the
group. Picture resolutions are creeping upward and prices are
falling toward respectability, but there still seem to be three
main categories of these beasts: (1) Fixed-memory, non-expandable
units; (2) expandable-memory units with solid-state memory cards;
and (3) expandable-memory units with rotating memory. Those of
the first category seem to be dying out (as they should!) due to
their requiring one to download to a computer, printer or display
on TV when memory is full. Cameras in the second (memory-card)
category are increasing in popularity, with the various card
formats being used. While SanDisk's Compact Flash (CF) seems to
be the most popular card format, the Toshiba-invented Solid State
Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC) and Intel's Miniature Card endure as
well. In addition, Siemens' new Multi Media Card format was shown
off as the new, smallest alternative to PCMCIA cards. This card
is just about the same length and width as the old HP41 memory
modules.

Meanwhile, the rotating-memory units in the
U.S. are restricted to two: Hitachi's MPEG camera which stores
onto a type-3 PC card hard drive and Sony's two Digital Mavica
models which store images onto standard floppy disks. (When I saw
the Sony unit, I had to have one, and received it on 9/15, just
in time for the trip to London for the HPCC Handheld Conference.)
Hitachi's unit costs $2500., and obviously won't reach the main
stream. Sony's two models at $499. And $699., have become the
best-selling digital still cameras in the U.S. and should spur
other companies to release competing floppy-disk-based cameras
some time soon. In Japan, Sharp has had a minidisc-based camera
on the market for about a year and Sony recently announced one.
An eight-dollar disk which may store hundreds or possibly
thousands of images has obvious appeal. Stay tuned to see if
these models make it here some time soon. It is my sincere hope
that they do.

Audio Gear

The big news in the audio front is the
recently-released recordable CD (CD-R) devices. Philips showed
off its newly-announced $599. model (CDR-870BK) which sports
coaxial digital, optical digital and analog inputs for creating
CDs from other CDs, minidiscs, cassettes, LPs or any analog or
digital external source. The Philips blank recordable CDs include
a small royalty paid to the music industry. They said that coming
this fall is planned a dual-deck CD playback/recorder model to
ease in the copying process. In addition, the recent controversy
over an audio-only DVD format may have been finally settled, with
the committee formed to tackle this issue releasing their
recommendations to the music industry. This includes
super-high-fidelity music recorded with 96 kilohertz sampling
rates and 24-bit word widths (compared to current CDs done at
44.1 KHz and 16 bit words). On the Minidisc (MD) front, Sony,
Sharp and others have renewed their attempts to make the U.S. a
viable market for its use. Sony showed a portable unit barely
larger than the disk itself, with all the controls on the
headphone cable. Others showed CD/MD dual decks for easy digital
dubbing.

Computers, Digital Watches,
Telephones

Taiwanese company Palmax (who introduced
one of the seven Palm PCs) also showed a handheld computer which
might just get Toshiba's attention if not many others' as well.
This was a "clone" of the Toshiba Libretto, with Cyrix
120 MHz chip instead of the Intel Pentium. The physical size is
the same, with similar LCD, keyboard and I/O devices, except the
thumb-driven pointing device is replaced by a full LCD
touchscreen. Also, the price at introduction (which is slated for
Spring) will be $995., which is half Toshiba's current Libretto
Model 70 price. Should this one take off at a thousand dollars,
many others might just follow suit.

Casio continues to introduce digital
watches with an assortment of features. This year, they showed
off one with a 30-second digital audio recorder for reminders,
plus another one which can receive information from a PC via
infrared receiver. The still are pushing a line of devices with
altimeter, barometer, thermometer and digital compass sensors as
well. (So, when will we see GPS or cellular in a wrist
instrument?)

In the telephone world, Motorola finally
showed off prototypes of its phones to work on the Iridium
satellite system, which is only a year or so away from its start.
Already more than half of the 66 low-earth-orbiting satellites
are in place for this network to be in place. They also displayed
Iridium pagers as well. It will be interesting to see these
devices compete with the Teledesic satellite system backed by
Microsoft and others, soon to be providing satellite-based
digital services such as Internet to wireless receivers all over
the planet.

Vtech has finally rolled out the cordless
telephone for which I have been waiting for several years now:
The model VT2960ci is a 900 MHz 2-line cordless which not only
has a caller ID/ call-waiting ID multi-line display in the
handset, but contains a 2-line digital answering machine in the
base. The price was estimated to be around $369. Upon its
introduction in the Spring.

No Handheld Users' Gathering

There was no HP handheld users' gathering
this year, as Educalc's demise has really taken a toll on the
morale of the usual gang. Perhaps with an upcoming HP handheld
conference in the Seattle area next August, we'll have more
enthusiasm.